


Jake and Charles

by Impossibly_Izzy



Series: I Don't Wanna Let You Go [2]
Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: Amy is the ultimate wedding coordinator/genius, Fluff, M/M, Romance, Rosa keeps just pulling bellinis out of thin air, The squad are amazing and supportive, Weddings, it's very tender I think Dan Goor would approve
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-15
Updated: 2019-05-15
Packaged: 2020-03-06 01:09:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18840553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Impossibly_Izzy/pseuds/Impossibly_Izzy
Summary: ‘It’s wedding time!’ Charles declared. He had been buzzing with excitement all morning, which Jake found thoroughly irresistible.‘Toit,’ said Jake. He grabbed both of Charles’ hands, pulling him into a kiss. ‘I’m so excited to marry you.’





	Jake and Charles

**Author's Note:**

> This is set in the same universe as [my drabble collection](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18281345/chapters/43265234), so check that out if you haven't already!

‘You’re making a toast at the wedding, right?’ Jake said to Holt, one night at Shaw’s.

‘Why would I be making a toast?’ said Holt.

‘Because you’re the father of the bride?’ said Jake, hopefully.

‘Would you like me to walk you down the aisle as well?’ Holt said, dryly.

‘I know you’re joking,’ said Jake. ‘But I would actually love that.’

‘It would be impractical,’ said Holt. ‘If you would like me to officiate.’

‘Oh my god,’ said Jake. ‘That is so much better.’ He turned around to call across the bar. ‘Hey, Charles? Can Holt officiate our wedding?’

Charles gave him a thumbs up and a grin from across the room.

‘Noice,’ said Jake. ‘Wedding: planned!

It turned out that planning a wedding involved more than one decision. There was a venue to find (a fancy hotel), a best man to appoint (Gina), suits to buy (Charles insisted on doing it separately to maintain an element of surprise) and so many more. It was an endless string of decisions. Thankfully their friends were around to offer opinions of napkin colours - especially Amy, who threw herself into the opportunity to plan something with an alarming amount of tenacity.

And of course Charles had insisted on calling the ‘save the date’ cards ‘STDs’, and Jake insisted on at least _some_ Die Hard homages, and it was a little complicated and a lot expensive and sometimes stressful, but it was also amazing. Him and Charles, working together like they were on a case, but instead of catching bad guys they were figuring out the best way to show everyone how much they loved each other.

‘The engaged life is so good, sexually,’ Jake overheard Charles saying to Terry one day.

‘Man, I miss when you used to say stuff like that to Jake,’ sighed Terry.

‘Oh, I still do,’ said Charles. ‘I just wanna spread it around, you know?’

‘You’re gross,’ said Gina.

And then, after months of waiting and a flurry of panicked decisions and thrown-together favours, the day of the wedding was upon them.

 

The venue was perfect, a big fancy hotel with a ballroom and a professional kitchen for the caterers they’d ended up spending quite a lot of their budget on.

‘It’s wedding time!’ Charles declared. He had been buzzing with excitement all morning, which Jake found thoroughly irresistible.

‘Toit,’ said Jake. He grabbed both of Charles’ hands, pulling him into a kiss. ‘I’m so excited to marry you.’

‘Me too,’ said Charles, standing on tiptoe to kiss Jake again.

‘Let’s get this wedding started, bitches!’ came Gina’s voice from behind them.

They turned around, to see Gina, Rosa, Amy, and Terry approaching.

‘Hey, grooms,’ said Amy. She was holding a binder so full that it required both arms.

‘Jeez, what’s in that binder?’ said Jake.

‘ _Everything_ ,’ said Amy. ‘I am going to make sure that your wedding is perfect.’

‘Put the binder down for one second?’

‘Why?’

‘Please?’

Amy rolled her eyes, but she set the binder down on the floor, and Jake enveloped her in a hug. ‘Thanks, Ames. You’re awesome.’

She hugged him back quickly, and then pulled away. ‘We don’t have time for hugs – we’ve got so much to do! Right: Terry, take the suits upstairs, get everything set up. Gina, make sure your mom and Charles’ dad – and Jake’s parents – get here okay. Look after them. Keep Roger away from Holt. Oh, and make sure Holt and Kevin get here okay.’

‘On it,’ Gina said.

‘Jake and Charles, come to the ballroom with me – we need to check the seating chart and the decorations.’

‘What about me?’ said Rosa.

‘You’re on bellinis,’ said Amy.

‘That’s it?’ said Rosa.

‘Bellinis are very important!’ Amy snapped. ‘Everyone, keep an eye on your phone – I’ll be texting you more instructions.’ Everyone just stood there, a little in shock. ‘Go!’ she said. Terry, Rosa, and Gina scattered, and Jake and Charles followed Amy into the ballroom.

 

Amy had a lot to do. Don’t let Holt get into an argument with Jake’s dad, make sure everyone sticks to the seating chart, make sure Charles doesn’t faint… and that was only the start of it. And yes, she wasn’t a wedding planner, and _yes_ , she wasn’t even the best man, but she was organised and she was committed to making sure everything went off without a hitch.

‘This is _amazing_ ,’ said Charles, gazing around the ballroom.

The ceiling was covered in strings of fairy lights, the cavernous room split into a dancefloor and a collection of tables. One wall was nothing but a white curtain, on the other side of which was the space for the ceremony itself.

Charles’ phone rang.

‘It’s my dad – give me a moment.’

Amy looked around for somewhere to set her binder down, and ended up sitting on the floor with it open in front of her.

‘Seriously,’ said Jake. ‘This is dope. You’re the best, Ames.’

‘Yeah yeah,’ Amy said, barely hearing him as she ran through her to-do list in her head. The door opened behind them, and Charles came back in. ‘Who was it?’ said Amy. ‘Is there a problem?’

‘No,’ said Charles. ‘Merely the slightest of worriments.’

‘Just tell me what’s wrong,’ she said.

‘Milton’s coming,’ Charles blurted.

Amy groaned. _Milton_. Charles’ unreliable cousin and Iggy Linetti’s unreliable father. ‘But he’s not on the seating chart!’

‘Do you want me to tell him not to come?’ said Jake, looking pretty cheerful at the prospect.

‘No, it’s fine,’ said Amy. ‘I can work with this.’

She marched over to the board with the seating plan on it. There was a gap over by the – but no, she should probably keep Milton away from large groups of Boyle cousins. And he probably shouldn’t be on the same table as Gina – but would he be offended at being sat so far away from his daughter? Before she knew it, Amy had taken half the names off the board.

‘You just put Kevin on the singles table,’ Jake pointed out.

‘It’s a _process_!’ Amy protested. ‘Leave this to me – go drink some bellinis or something.’

 

‘I actually think you got the best job,’ Jake said. They were in their hotel room, which Rosa and Terry had colonised with flowers and bottles of champagne. A dry-cleaning bag hung from the closet door, containing Charles’ wedding suit that Jake still hadn’t been allowed to see.

‘Yeah.’ Rosa sipped her bellini.

‘How are you guys feeling?’ said Terry. ‘Excited?’

‘So excited!’ Jake stood up, because sitting still was beyond him right now, and walked to the window to see if anyone had arrived yet.

‘I’m gonna see how Amy’s doing with the seating chart,’ Charles said.

‘Okay,’ said Jake. ‘See ya soon!’

And Jake talked to his friends and drank bellinis and laughed and watched out of the window as people began to arrive, and only then did he notice how late it was getting.

‘Charles never came back,’ he realised.

‘Probably still with Amy,’ Rosa said.

‘Yeah, with Amy, yeah. Coolcoolcoolcool,’ said Jake. ‘I’m gonna go check. You know. Just in case.’

 

By the time Amy had sorted out the seating chart, guests were arriving. And she trusted Terry, Gina, and Rosa to look after them, but that didn’t stop her from worrying. Okay, maybe she didn’t _completely_ trust them.

And then a whole string of fairy lights went out, which meant she had to rearrange the decorations to cover the gap.

And _then_ Jake’s aunt wandered into the ballroom, even though the guests were meant to be out on the lawn, and she was asking Amy all kinds of questions about who was coming and which religious traditions were being adhered to and what made a gay wedding different from a ‘normal’ one, and Amy did _not_ have time for all of this.

And then Jake was back, looking flustered. ‘Hey, Ames?’

‘What’s wrong? Is there another problem with the seating chart? I-’

‘No, no, that’s fine,’ said Jake. ‘But I lost Charles. He said he was coming to find you.’

Amy’s heart stopped for a moment. ‘I haven’t seen him since you guys went upstairs,’ she said. She’d been trying to solve all the problems, but she couldn’t do that if one of the grooms was going to disappear. And then she had an idea. ‘Did you try the kitchen?’

‘Oh my god, Ames, you’re a genius!’ said Jake. ‘Don’t tell anyone I said that!

He rushed off again, and Amy turned back to her to-do list. And then the DJ phoned to say that he was running late, and Amy yelled at him, and then Jake’s aunt came back in with some very specific opinions on decorations.

‘Honestly,’ she said. ‘You’d think a gay wedding would at least have proper flower arrangements.’

‘ _Please_ ,’ said Amy, reduced to begging and almost to tears. ‘Could you just leave all this to me?’

She managed to usher the aunt back outside, and then Gina arrived.

‘Right, Gina, what’s happening?’ said Amy.

‘Charles and Jake have both disappeared, half the Boyle cousins are trying to fight Milton, and neither Roger nor Lynn is wearing pants, but other than that everything’s great.’

‘Really?’ said Amy. ‘Please, just tell me something good that happened.’

‘Jake’s aunt said something homophobic and Terry had to physically restrain Rosa from punching her.’

‘That’s not good!’

‘Guess you had to be there,’ said Gina.

Rosa walked in. ‘Hey. What’s wrong with her?’

‘I’m freaking out,’ said Amy. ‘Everything’s going wrong – Charles and Jake have vanished – I just wanted to make this perfect, you know?’

‘C’mere, dummy,’ said Rosa. She pulled Amy into a tight hug, and Gina joined in on Amy’s other side.

‘What is happening right now?’ said Amy.

‘Group hug,’ said Rosa.

‘You’re doing a great job, Amy,’ said Gina. ‘You and your nerdy binder are going to give those two weirdos the best wedding ever.’

‘So try to have some fun tonight,’ Rosa added. ‘Wait, I’ve got an idea.’

She extricated herself from the hug and disappeared from the room for a moment. When she came back she was holding two glasses of bellini, which she handed to Amy and Gina.

‘These aren’t for us!’ Amy protested. ‘And I don’t think I should be drinking right now. And don’t you remember what happened when you and Adrian-?’

‘Just drink it,’ said Rosa. ‘You deserve it.’

Gina held her already-empty glass out to Rosa. ‘And I deserve another one.’

 

Charles was indeed in the kitchen, elbow-deep in crab meat and in full-on angry chef mode.

‘What kind of idiot doesn’t measure their pasta?’ Charles snapped. ‘You wanna end up with lumpy ravioli? Do you?’

‘Uhh,’ said the terrified-looking caterer.

‘Look,’ said Charles. ‘ _This_ is how you make a raviolo.’

‘ _Heyyy_ , babe,’ said Jake, carefully. ‘You okay there?’

‘Jake, just give me five seconds,’ said Charles. ‘I’ve gotta sort this out before someone completely screws up our wedding.’

He continued to furiously arrange piles of crab meat onto pasta dough while the caterer watched in aguish. Jake shot him an apologetic look.

‘Babe,’ said Jake, and when that got no reaction. ‘ _Charles_. Babe. Just talk to me for a moment.’

‘Just let me-’

‘ _Babe_ ,’ said Jake again. ‘Just put down the crab, come outside and talk to me. Just for a sec.’

‘ _Fine_.’ Charles stepped away from the pasta and wiped his hands on his shirt, apparently forgetting he wasn’t wearing an apron. But he followed Jake out of the kitchen, into the lobby of the hotel. They sat down on the grand staircase.

‘Wanna tell me what’s wrong?’ Jake said, softly.

‘I’m sorry,’ said Charles.

‘Don’t be,’ said Jake. ‘Just tell me what’s up.’

‘I really want everything to go right,’ Charles said, a note of despair in his voice.

‘Listen to me,’ said Jake. ‘Our wedding doesn’t have to be perfect. I like all the fancy food and the music and those drinks with the peach juice, but none of that _matters_. What matters is you and me, yeah?’

Charles nodded, but he didn’t look any happier. Jake took his boyfriend’s hand.

‘What are you thinking?’ he said.

Charles didn’t meet his gaze. ‘I… When I married Eleanor, I thought…’

A weight settled across Jake’s stomach. Charles still wasn’t looking at him. ‘Are you… having doubts?’ said Jake.

Charles shook his head. ‘I love you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. But that’s how I felt about Eleanor, and Vivian, and… What if it all goes wrong again?’

‘Those times were different,’ said Jake. ‘Those guys weren’t _me_.’

Charles smiled weakly. ‘You don’t think we’re rushing into this?’

‘We’ve been together two _years_ ,’ Jake reminded him. ‘That’s gotta be your all-time record for waiting to get married. But, for real, if you’re not sure about this, we don’t have to-’

‘No, I want to do this,’ Charles said. ‘You don’t have to worry about that, okay? I want to spend the rest of my life with you.’

He leant in, pressing a soft kiss to Jake’s lips.

‘Me too,’ said Jake. He felt like he might cry, which was annoying because it threatened to ruin the impact when he inevitably cried during the ceremony.

‘Sorry for freaking out,’ said Charles.

‘Don’t worry about it,’ said Jake. He kissed him again. ‘You might wanna wash your hands though. You smell like crab.’

Charles raised an eyebrow at him. ‘Is crab not sexy? Some people would say shellfish are an aphrodisiac.’

Jake laughed. ‘I love you.’

‘I love you too,’ said Charles.

‘Hey, we should get married!’ said Jake.

‘You two look like you need another bellini.’ Rosa had come through the door from the ballroom.

‘We sure do,’ said Jake, getting to his feet.

In the ballroom, they found Amy and Gina sitting on the floor, surrounded not only by Amy’s to-do lists but by several bottles of champagne and peach juice.

‘Here,’ said Rosa, shoving glasses into their hands. ‘Drinks.’

‘I can’t believe I ever introduced you to bellinis,’ Amy said.  ‘It was... uh, wait, what was I meant to be doing?’

‘Ah, One Drink Amy,’ said Jake.

‘Yeah, you might wanna get up to two,’ said Rosa.

‘I’ve gotta go change,’ Gina declared. ‘Laters!’

And then Charles’ dad and Darlene showed up, followed quickly by Jake’s parents and, most importantly, Holt and Kevin. And Jake kept thinking: _holy shit, we really are about to get married._

Amy checked the time on her phone. ‘We’d better get ready.’

When they got upstairs, Gina was there, wearing a white lace concoction that clung to her body and flared out around her ankles.

‘There’s my beautiful sister,’ said Charles. ‘Can I just say, you look smoking hot.’

‘No,’ said Gina. ‘You absolutely cannot say that.’

‘Stop flirting with the best man,’ said Jake. ‘You’re gonna be _married_ soon.’

‘Why are you wearing a wedding dress?’ said Amy.

‘Why not?’ said Gina. ‘ _Someone_ should be.’

‘Okay, Jake, your stuff’s in here,’ said Amy, and led him to another hotel room. Amy disappeared into the bathroom, leaving Jake to change into his wedding suit, which was navy blue and definitely the most expensive piece of clothing he’d ever worn.

‘How are you feeling?’ Amy said, through the bathroom door.

‘Good,’ said Jake, his hands trembling as he put his shirt on. ‘Excited. I can’t believe this is finally happening, you know? Also, I think I’ve forgotten how to do up buttons?’

Amy reappeared, now wearing a red dress and makeup.

‘Come here,’ she said, and started doing up his buttons for him. ‘Are you nervous?’

‘Maybe?’ he said. ‘I’m shaking. Maybe I’m freaking out a little. Coolcoolcoolcool. Oh my god, what’s wrong with me? I just gave Charles that whole speech, and now _I’m_ freaking out _.’_

‘Hey,’ she said, her voice soothing. ‘It’s okay. It’s normal to be nervous.’

‘It is?’ Jake was feeling uncomfortably hot all of a sudden.

‘ _Yes_ ,’ Amy insisted. ‘It’s a big life milestone, and those are scary. But this is what you want, isn’t it?’

‘Yeah,’ said Jake. Because, despite the tightness in his chest and the fact that he was already sweating into his wedding suit, there was no doubt in his mind. He loved Charles, and he wanted to spend the rest of his life with him. ‘This is what I want.’

‘Good.’ Amy fastened his top button. ‘Need help with your bow tie?’

‘I think so,’ said Jake. He stood there, feeling kind of useless as Amy looped the bow tie under his collar and started doing it up. ‘Thank you,’ he said.

‘No problem.’

‘No,’ he said. ‘Thank you for everything.’

‘You already said that,’ Amy said.

‘I don’t think you were listening,’ he said.

Amy smiled. ‘I was a bit distracted.’

Jake waited for her to finish with his tie, and then he hugged her. ‘You’re the best, Ames.’

‘Thank you,’ she said, and this time she hugged him back properly. ‘You deserve this. Now, go get married.’

 

Jake was in a daze. Everything felt slightly unreal and at the same time _incredibly_ real. Everyone was here now, in their seats on the other side of the curtain, waiting for him.

‘Good luck!’ said Amy. Jake just gave her a thumbs up; he’d sort of forgotten how to talk, which was very unlike him. And then Amy had disappeared through the curtain, and it was just Jake listening to the hushed chatter and the music and thinking about how he was _about to get married._

‘Hey.’

Jake turned around, and Charles was there. His blazer was gold - not tacky gold, but almost the colour of champagne, like a fancier version of his usual beige. With a grey bowtie and grey pants, and he looked amazing, and _this was it, they were getting married._

‘You look…’ said Jake, but the words caught in his throat.

‘So do you,’ said Charles. He already looked like he was trying not to cry.

Jake took Charles’ hand. ‘Ready?’

‘ _So_ ready.’

They pushed through the curtain. Everyone craned to looked at them as they walked down the aisle to where Holt was waiting for them, with Gina beside him somehow managing to look both bored and emotional.

When they were standing in front of Holt, Jake turned and took Charles’ other hand. Charles was grinning at him, that wide-eyed, lovesick grin that Jake couldn’t get enough of.

And Holt said, ‘Jake. Charles. When I started out as a gay police officer, I could not have imagined that one day I would be the captain of a couple such as yourselves, let alone officiating your wedding.

He led them through the vows, even remembering that Jake’s middle name was Sherlock, and the words _lawfully wedded husband_ felt fantastic as Jake recited them. Charles slid the ring onto Jake’s finger, next to his engagement ring. It was cool against his skin, a solid confirmation of the words they were saying. Jake pushed the matching ring onto Charles’ hand.

‘The most intimate thing you can do to someone with your fingers,’ he said, just loud enough for Charles to hear. ‘Except washing their hair.’

‘I love you so much,’ Charles said, like the words had been waiting to spill out of him.

‘I believe you have prepared your own vows?’ Holt said.

Charles squeezed Jake’s hands. ‘Once, when we were on a case together,’ he said. ‘I said that I thought you were the most amazing man who ever lived. I wasn’t kidding about that. You are the sweetest, smartest, most devastatingly handsome person I’ve ever met.’

‘That’s fair,’ said Jake. His eyes were welling up, his heart racing.

‘I’m so excited to spend the rest of my life with you,’ Charles said.

‘I’m so excited too,’ said Jake.

And then they were just grinning tearily at each other, and Jake almost forgot that he was supposed to speak as well until Holt said, ‘Jake?’

‘Right,’ he said. ‘Vows. Charles…’ He paused. Drew breath. Steadied himself. ‘I don’t know why I let you go first, because I can’t possible top that.’ There was a smattering of laughter from everyone watching, but most importantly it made Charles smile. ‘Insert sexy joke here,’ Jake continued. More laughter. ‘But seriously, I wish I was as good as you are at telling you how much you mean to me. I’m just constantly trying to tell you, but I don’t have the words for it, so it’s pretty lucky that I’m going to have the rest of my life to show you. Like, by dragging you away from yelling at caterers.’

Charles laughed, even though he was crying. Jake was blinked back his own tears.

‘You’re my best friend,’ he continued. ‘My partner. I can’t imagine going through life without you next to me. You make me so, _so_ happy. I love you.’ Jake’s voice caught in his throat. ‘Okay, vows over. Mic drop!’

‘By the power invested in me by the state of New York,’ said Holt. ‘I now pronounce you married. You can kiss your husband.’

And Jake grinned so hard it almost hurt, and pulled Charles into a kiss – pulled his _husband_ into a kiss.

‘I love you too,’ Charles said, and kissed him again. He was shaking underneath Jake’s hands.

They had a moment alone after the ceremony, a moment that was probably supposed to be tender and loving, but both of them were too full of excited energy to sit still.

‘We just got married!’ Charles said, his eyes wide.

‘I know!’ said Jake, and kissed him again.

And then there was the food – the crab ravioli was amazing – and then Gina gave a best man speech that was mostly about herself but managed to be heartfelt and kind of beautiful anyway. And there was champagne, and music, and Jake and Charles danced to ‘Take Me Home Tonight’, and Jake mouthed the words _stake me out tonight_ along with the song.

‘I’m sorry for freaking out earlier,’ Charles said.

Jake held his hand tightly, the other on his waist as they moved together. ‘It’s fine,’ he said. ‘I freaked out too, when I was getting ready. I know today has been kind of chaotic, but if it wasn’t then it wouldn’t be us, right?’

‘Oh, definitely,’ said Charles. ‘Best day ever.’

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked that! I've been working on it for ages, so some comments would make me super happy!


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